Ice Breaker
 | This chapter is exclusively available to members of Bittersweet Club International. |
| Ice Breaker | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Published | September 23, 2019 |
| Page count | 10 |
| Major characters | Paulo, Sue |
| Minor characters | Lucy |
| Locations | Roseville Middle School |
| Chapter navigation | |
| ← Grave Concern | Merry Christmas, Roseville! → |
| Read in the BCI Members’ Library | |
Ice Breaker is a Bittersweet Club International-exclusive comic that rewinds to the cast’s middle-school days, where Sue watches Paulo take a punch from Lucy and decides that somebody really ought to teach this boy how to talk to girls. Whether it counts as genuine backstory or a what-if is something Veronica and Oliver leave entirely up to the reader.
Partial synopsis
The story opens with Lucy decking Paulo across the face. She yells that he’s “just like ALL the rest!” and storms off in tears, leaving him holding his bruised cheek and muttering that he thought girls liked that. Sue watches while sipping a drink and tells Paulo he acted stupid.[1] Their argument becomes a shouting match. When Paulo demands to know how she could possibly tell what girls like, Sue responds at full volume that she is a girl.[2]
Once they calm down, Sue tells Paulo to be nice and stop chickening out every time Lucy gets close. Talking to girls cannot be that scary, she points out, since he is doing it right now.[3] Sue says watching him flail around with Lucy is embarrassing, so she volunteers as a practice partner. Paulo begins by lifting her chin and calling her babe. She throws her drink in his face and announces Rule #1 of talking to girls: “don’t be a weird flirty creep!”[4]
Rule #2 is to get to know a girl as he would a friend. Paulo blurts out a question about the latest “Señor Cockroach” comic, and Sue replies with a deadpan “I don’t think this friendship can work.”[5] Whether any of her lessons will ever make it as far as Lucy, though, is another question entirely...
Character dynamics
- Paulo and Sue: At the outset, Paulo needs Sue to remind him that she is a girl.[2] Sue says that watching him fumble with Lucy is embarrassing, then volunteers to coach him.[3] In Intervention, high-school Paulo instead calls Sue “kinda cute, but too much of a know-it-all. The annoying kind of smart.”[6]
Trivia & observations
- The launch newspost leaves the Paulo/Sue framing to the reader. It says the story “is not really a PauloxSue chapter, but it’s kind of a PauloxSue chapter. You decide!”[8]
- The same newspost jokes that middle-school Sue comes across as “some kind of thoughtful androgyne(??)”.[8]
- “Señor Cockroach”, the comic Paulo tries to bond over, appears nowhere else in the series.[5]
Related chapters
- Flirting with Disaster: The opening page restages that chapter’s middle-school flashback. Lucy punches Paulo after his first mall-learned pickup attempt and uses the same “you’re just like ALL the rest!”[9][10]
- Left Behind: Middle-school Lucy fends off advances from older boys, giving context to whom she means by “all the rest”.[11]
- Participation Trophy: Years later in the main comic, James asks whether Paulo and Sue are the ones who have crushes on each other. Paulo laughs until he cries, while Sue shrieks.[12][13]
References
- ↑ Ice Breaker, page 1 🔒 (members only)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ice Breaker, page 2 🔒 (members only)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ice Breaker, page 3 🔒 (members only)
- ↑ Ice Breaker, page 4 🔒 (members only)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ice Breaker, page 5 🔒 (members only)
- ↑ Chapter 44: Intervention, page 13
- ↑ “Ice Breaker announcement post”. 2019-09-23.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 “Ice Breaker launch newspost”. 2019-09-23.
- ↑ Chapter 27: Flirting with Disaster, page 4
- ↑ Chapter 27: Flirting with Disaster, page 5
- ↑ Chapter 26: Left Behind, page 5
- ↑ Chapter 126: Participation Trophy, page 19
- ↑ Chapter 126: Participation Trophy, page 20